WV asks MD Not to Classify the Potomac as a Cold Water Habitat

The junction of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers
at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia

WVPublic, House Passes Resolution Against Reclassifying Potomac River Section For Climate Concerns

The West Virginia House of Delegates passed a resolution Tuesday opposing the redesignation of a segment of the Potomac River.

The federal government classifies waterways according to the aquatic life species that live in them, namely as cold water, warm water or mixed aquatic life zones.

The Potomac River runs along the border of western Maryland and West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle.

Recently, the Maryland Department of the Environment has sought to expand the designation of cold water aquatic life areas, arguing that the ecological impacts of climate change demand closer monitoring of changes to water temperatures.

“As climate change causes stream temperatures to rise, cold water habitats like those in the North Branch Potomac River are becoming increasingly rare,” reads a department webpage. “Protecting these habitats is essential for species like trout, which are highly sensitive to warming.”

But West Virginia House Concurrent Resolution 49 argues that reclassifying the waterway would be detrimental to local industrial projects, because it would require them to monitor the temperature of discharges into local waterways.

The resolution specifically refers to a segment of the Potomac River that begins at the mouth of Maryland’s Savage River, and continues through the community of Pinto, Maryland.

The reclassification would “impose an unreasonable burden on interstate commerce and on the State of West Virginia,” the resolution reads. The resolution also urges the attorney general to investigate the constitutionality of a reclassification.

“Discharges from the West Virginia side of the river will have to be cooled down… adding costs to West Virginia businesses,” said the resolution’s lead sponsor, Del. Gary Howell, R-Mineral. Howell’s House district is bordered by a portion of the Potomac that would be affected by a reclassification of the northern branch of the river.

“The resolution is requesting that Maryland reject this so that we don’t have to go to court if they do this to fight for West Virginia,” he said.

The Potomac is an unusual border river, because back in colonial times, ownership of the river defined not by splitting the river, instead as Maryland up to the shoreline on the Virginia side, a rule that stayed true even when West by God Virginia declared its independence from Virginia during the Civil War. 

Come on WV, thermometers aren't that expensive, even good recording ones.